One offers a stay on a boat — a “charming old 1966 Pearson” with a wood-burning fireplace moored in Stamford Harbor — for $85 a night. “Be a boat owner for the weekend without all the hassle,” the Airbnb host pitches to prospective guests.

Another offering a newly updated studio for $59 a night touts the short walk to downtown Stamford restaurants and shops, and to the train station for a quick ride to New York City.

A third advertises a “historical midcentury modern” house and includes photographs of an aqua-blue pool with a diving board, set into a slate patio. It’s surrounded by trees growing beside a brook with a little waterfall. The “zen and peaceful” house provides “a beautiful getaway” for couples, business travelers and “solo adventurers,” and can be used for photo shoots, the host proclaims. It costs $285 a night.

Apparently it doesn’t disappoint. Guests who left comments about the house on Airbnb’s website liked picking up groceries at nearby Trader Joe’s, playing rounds at Sterling Farms Golf Course, and “walking the property for a quick little scenic adventure.”

Airbnb is catching on in Stamford.

The Internet bread-and-breakfast company reports 110 active hosts in the city in the past year, compared to 94 the previous year.

This year, Stamford hosts took in about 3,400 guests, many more than the 2,000 reported in 2017.

The average income for hosts is also up — from $6,800 last year to $7,700 this year, Airbnb reports.

Global growth

Airbnb, an online platform that connects travelers with people who want to rent space in their homes, was founded in San Francisco in 2008 and now lists more than 5 million lodgings in 81,000 cities worldwide.

Hosts and guests register with Airbnb, which collects a service fee for each booking. Hosts post listings on Airbnb’s website or app for guests to search, book, pay, and leave comments for those who follow.

In Stamford, the typical host rents three nights a month, according to Airbnb. Almost half the hosts — 46 percent — are women, and 15 percent are seniors.

The 3,400 Airbnb travelers to Stamford in the past year is more than Norwalk, Greenwich and Bridgeport, but 300 fewer than Danbury. New Haven, home to Yale and other colleges, had the most guests by far, with 17,600, according to Airbnb.

But Stamford has been visited with some of the problems that plague Airbnb around the globe.

Airing abuses

Two years ago, residents of Grandview Avenue, in the historic Hubbard Heights neighborhood, reported repeatedly about a house where different people came and went day and night, using the mailbox as a key drop. An ever-changing array of cars, many with out-of-state plates, clogged the curbs.

City health and zoning inspectors and a fire marshal found makeshift bedrooms in the laundry room and kitchen. A medical student who came forward with complaints about conditions in the house said a professor was sleeping on a mattress behind the fireplace and the bathroom was unsanitary. Most of the people who stayed there were students or construction workers, he said.

The city ordered the owner to restore the house to single family and notified Airbnb, which removed the listing.

On Whitmore Lane on the West Side, a man with a multifamily house advertised six rooms on Airbnb, bringing a constant stream of cars to a street already short on parking space. The city sent inspectors and found the owner was violating zoning regulations.

Whitmore Lane resident Ken Cosentino said the man still hosts Airbnb travelers, but rents weekly instead of daily, so fewer people come and go.

“Now I think two or three more people on the street are doing it. He gave them the idea,” Cosentino said. “I think that when people get into marginal ways of paying their mortgages, this is an easy way out.”

No house-sharing rules

A house in a residential neighborhood should not operate as a hotel, Cosentino said, but no one’s figured out how to regulate house-sharing.

“Somebody’s got to tell me what the rules are, because if somebody doesn’t set rules, people have a tendency to go crazy,” he said.

Stamford does not have an ordinance governing short-term rentals in residential zones. They are allowed as long as property owners comply with zoning, health, fire and building codes.

Zoning regulations say a single-family homeowner may rent to as many as four unrelated adults, and an owner living in the home may take in a maximum of two boarders. The city does not limit length of stay.

But unrelated occupants must share the kitchen and bathrooms, and the house cannot be split into apartments. A bedroom for one person must be at least 70 square feet, and there must be another 50 square feet for each additional person. Key locks on bedroom doors are illegal.

Like other cities, Stamford has struck out in attempts to get information from Airbnb. Last year, a zoning official asked Airbnb to provide addresses for homes listed on its website so inspectors could check them, but the company refused.

Some cities, including New York, have tried to curb abuses by passing laws that fine Airbnb hosts who violate municipal codes. Airbnb responded with a federal lawsuit claiming such laws irreparably harm the company.

Tax is a plus

Company officials say Airbnb boosts income for homeowners, restaurants and other businesses. Last year, the Connecticut tax commissioner reached a deal with Airbnb requiring hosts to collect a 15 percent hotel tax from guests. This month, Airbnb announced it has since generated $5.2 million in tax revenue for the state.

Ron Miller, director of environmental inspections for the Stamford Health Department, and Assistant Fire Marshal Robert Sollitto said they have not received more complaints about Airbnb rentals. Libby Carlson, special assistant to Mayor David Martin, said the same about her office.

Members of the Board of Representatives last year said they would study the issue, citing difficulty in enforcing any law they would pass.

Terri Rich, one of the residents who fought to shut down the Airbnb on Grandview Avenue, said some hosts do not consider the effects on their neighbors.

“I think, 100 percent, that this needs some kind of oversight by the city,” Rich said. “My situation was fixed, but my heart goes out to people who are dealing with it.”